By Bill O'Reilly

Fair-minded Americans should feel very sorry for Maria Shriver and her four children, caught up in a terrible scandal generated by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Internet and the media are going wild over the fact that the former California governor fathered a child with a former member of his household staff. That apparently happened more than 10 years ago.

Somehow, Schwarzenegger kept it quiet and was able to serve eight years in Sacramento. Of course, Schwarzenegger's tenure was disastrous for the state. When he entered office, California owed about $36 billion. When he left office, the state owed more than $92 billion.

Now, no one knows how Schwarzenegger's personal problems affected his job, but you have to assume there was pressure on the man. It is not easy living a double life.

For the country, this story and the John Edwards scandal before it illustrate a stark reality in America: that the Internet can tear human beings apart because there are no boundaries. Thousands of websites spew forth horrendous stories about all kinds of people, especially those seeking political power.

Schwarzenegger and Edwards deserve the exposure. They did bad things. But all of us make mistakes, not at that level, but we make mistakes, and that makes it tough for anyone to run for political office. Office seekers now know that if they have made a significant mistake in their past life, it will be rammed down their throat. Do you want to put your family through that? Many smart and patriotic Americans do not. Therefore they stay out of the public arena.

Many of the Founding Fathers had huge mistakes on their resumes. We're talking about people like Franklin and Jefferson. Today they would be destroyed. Think about that.

Under the banner of freedom of speech, there is no solution to the Net. It is a free-fire zone on every single human being. Cowardly sociopaths hide in the weeds in their basements, ready, willing and able to say the most vile things, even if they're untrue. And there is absolutely nothing -- nothing -- a person in the public domain can do about it. There is something very wrong with that, but, again, there is no solution.

The social network has changed America forever.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

As you may know, next week Oprah will do her syndicated show for the last time, and so there are all kinds of look-backs. Here's one of them:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: I had the great fortune of growing up with four women. My mother and sisters all loved your show, and I don't think you can possibly understand how excited they were when I first went on your show in 1988.

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: You looked like you were 10 at the time.

CRUISE: Yes, I know.

WINFREY: Twelve. You looked 12. What was up with my hair?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So is that exposition pinheaded or patriotic? Please vote on BillOReilly.com.

Tuesday night we asked you whether the entire Donald Trump presidential flirtation was good or bad. Sixty-one percent of you say it was pinheaded; 39 percent patriotic. Very interesting result. Thanks to everyone who voted.

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.